'So Here’s An Honest Question: How Can You Take Money From Them?'

"But Soledad O'Brien, How Can You Take Money From A Patron of Islamists?" Jeff Dunetz of Truth Revolt sums up Hugh Hewitt's eye-opening interview with the former MSNBC and CNN newsreader who is now sharing time producing and appearing on shows that air on the National Geographic channel, CNN, its sister network HBO -- and Qatar-owned Al Jazeera:

Appearing on The Hugh Hewitt Radio Show to promote her upcoming special on CNN, Soledad O'Brien was asked how she could do freelance work for Al Jazeera, which is owned by Qatar, patron of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and ISIS. O'Brien obfuscated, first suggesting the U.S. was funding terrorism: "I think you could look at similar issues of what is funded in the United States," followed by, "it's not as straightforward as that."​

According to O'Brien, since Al Jazeera's journalism is solid, it doesn't matter that the country which owns the network is a financier of terrorism.

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Hewitt: "Businessweek" today has a story on Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, and the headline calls Qatar a patron of Islamists. It says that Qatar funds and arms Islamists fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad and bankrolling Hamas in the Gaza Strip. So here’s an honest question. How can you take money from them?

O’Brien: You know, I think that there is a couple of different issues there, and I think you could look at similar issues of what is funded in the United States. To me, at the end of the day, we take a look at the journalism that is done. To me, I look at what the opportunities are and what is happening at Al Jazeera America, and the kinds of stories that they want to tell, and I don’t think anybody has said anything about their journalism at all. In fact, they’ve gotten incredibly high marks for their reporting. And thank God, I was not involved in that.

Hewitt: Well, I’m not raising that. It’s just that Qatar owns it and on CNN tonight, they’re running this helicopter footage which is, so you know, the people that Qatar funds are engaged in genocide against these Kurdistan, against the Yazidis. And I know that the journalism can be good, but if the funding for the journalism comes from a regime that is funding ISIS, does it creep you out?

O’Brien: Well, you know, I think again, at the end of the day, the thing that I think about is the journalism. And I think those are very complicated issues. They’re not as straightforward as that.

Hewitt: Is there anything that would cause you to say if Qatar was shown to be funding ISIS, would you quit Al Jazeera?

O’Brien: No, very rarely do I operate in hypotheticals. I certainly would take it under considerations, absolutely, as I take anything under consideration.

Huh. O'Brien certainly doesn't mind using hypotheticals and "some says" when she's grilling her guests, particularly those on the right-hand side of the aisle. Or in other words -- how dare you commit journalism, Hewitt, and ask me a serious question about my ethics!

Soledad O’Brien and her CNN panel manage to stumble into Contessa Brewer territory in this appearance by attempting to paint Breitbart.com editor-in-chief Joel Pollak as a racist for making a point about Barack Obama’s support for a proponent of “critical race theory” during his days at Harvard Law School. Joel ends up in an argument with a woefully unprepared O’Brien on the theory itself, but the actual facepalm moment goes to one of her panelists, who asks Joel why he’s so afraid of black people:

Only one problem, as Bryan Preston writes at the Tatler. “Joel Pollak’s wife is black. She’s from South Africa, actually, and her mother was a political appointee of none other than Nelson Mandela. Here she is, in video made when Pollak ran for Congress.”